I started with an explanation of this 2.5 day event last month, covering “Day 1” activities … now I want to provide a bit more information about the ABA conference – what I didn’t realize (since it was my first conference) … was this: once the speakers began talking about their presentation & I realized it was going to be a full hour on “cloud-computing” … I could have gotten up and left to attend another session. In this case, I would have moved to a seminar called “Productive PDF Tips & Tricks Every Lawyer Should Know”. So, next year, I’ll remember I can leave when a session is not meeting my needs.
Day 2: The six tracks included on two sections focused on: Solo/Small Firms, other session were on: E-Discovery, Macs, Cloud Computing & last, but not least: Advanced IT topics. There were six lunch’n learn sessions that covered the following topics & were hosted by vendors:
1) Time to cross-examine your technology (HP)
2) Improved Lawyer Efficiency with Matter Management (ProLaw)
3) How to avoid common mistakes under a tight deadline (Westlaw)
4) Using Technology to get the most out of running a law firm (LexisNexis)
5) eBooks powered by Proview (Proview)
6) The Data Delimma (Westlaw Litigator)
I chose to attend the LexisNexis session & was surprised there was no attempt to “sell” LexisNexis products. I later learned that in order for Vendors to take part in these events, their sessions must be strictly educational and not used for marketing purposes.
The break-out sessions I attended were titled:
Supercharging Outlook – hidden features & add-ons;
Managing the Information Tsunami;
Becoming a Note-able Lawyer: Evernote & One-Note to Improve your Productivity; You can Take it With You: Your Mobile Office.
From the names of these sessions, you can see I was choosing to focus on topics I felt would be of interest to my solo/small firm clients. I hope my review of this conference has shown you the variety of topics covered and, as always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!